come and see for yourself!"

She drew the hangings aside, and revealed to Ventimore's astonished gaze
a vast pillared hall with a lofty domed roof, from which hung several
lamps, diffusing a subdued radiance. High up in the wall, on his left,
were the two windows which he judged to have formerly belonged to his
sitting-room (for either from delicacy or inability, or simply because
it had not occurred to him, the Jinnee had not interfered with the
external structure), but the windows were now masked by a perforated
and gilded lattice, which accounted for the pattern Horace had noticed
from without. The walls were covered with blue-and-white Oriental tiles,
and a raised platform of alabaster on which were divans ran round two
sides of the hall, while the side opposite to him was pierced with
horseshoe-shaped arches, apparently leading to other apartments. The
centre of the marble floor was spread with costly rugs and piles of
cushions, their rich hues glowing through the gold with which they were
intricately embroidered.

"Well," said the unhappy Horace, scarcely knowing what he was saying,
"it--it all looks very _cosy_, Mrs. Rapkin."

"It's not for me to say, sir; but I should like to know where you
thought of dining?"

"Where?" said Horace. "Why, here, of course. There's plenty of room."

"There isn't a table left in the house," said Mrs. Rapkin; "so, unless
you'd wish the cloth laid on the floor----"

"Oh, there must be a table somewhere," said Horace, impatiently, "or you
can borrow one. Don't _make_ difficulties, Mrs. Rapkin. Rig up anything
you like.... Now I must be off and dress."

He got rid of her, and, on entering one of the archways, discovered a
smaller room, in cedar-wood encrusted with ivory and mother-o'-pearl,
which was evidently his bedroom. A gorgeous robe, stiff with gold and
glittering with ancient gems, was laid out for him--for the Jinnee had
thought of everything--but Ventimore, naturally, preferred his own
evening clothes.

"Mr. Rapkin!" he shouted, going to another arch that seemed to
communicate with the basement.

"Sir?" replied his landlord, who had just returned from his
"reading-room," and now appeared, without a tie and in his
shirt-sleeves, looking pale and wild, as was, perhaps, intelligible in
the circumstances. As he entered his unfamiliar marble halls he
staggered, and his red eyes rolled and his mouth gaped in a cod-like
fashion. "They've been at it 'ere, too, seemin'ly," h